Biological analogies in historyRoosevelt, Theodore
Philosophy
Biological analogies in history
Roosevelt, Theodore
History -- Philosophy
Moreover, certain at least of the
branches of science should likewise be treated by masters in the art of
presentment, so that the layman interested in science, no less than the
layman interested in history, shall have on his shelves classics which
can be read. Whether this wish be or be not capable of realization,
it assuredly remains true that the great historian of the future must
essentially represent the ideal striven after by the great historians
of the past. The industrious collector of facts occupies an honourable,
but not an exalted, position, and the scientific historian who produces
books which are not literature must rest content with the honour,
substantial, but not of the highest type, that belongs to him who
gathers material which some time some great master shall arise to use.
Yet, while freely conceding all that can be said of the masters of
literature, we must insist upon the historian of mankind working in the
scientific spirit, and using the treasure-houses of science. He who
would fully treat of man must know at least something of biology, of
the science that treats of living, breathing things; and especially of
that science of evolution which is inseparably connected with the great
name of Darwin. Of course there is no exact parallelism between the
birth, growth, and death of species in the animal world, and the birth,
growth, and death of societies in the world of man. Yet there is a
certain parallelism. There are strange analogies; it may be that there
are homologies.
How far the resemblances between the two sets of phenomena are
more than accidental, how far biology can be used as an aid in the
interpretation of human history, we cannot at present say. The
historian should never forget, what the highest type of scientific man
is always teaching us to remember, that willingness to admit ignorance
is a prime factor in developing wisdom out of knowledge. Wisdom is
advanced by research which enables us to add to knowledge; and,
moreover, the way for wisdom is made ready when men who record facts of
vast but unknown import, if asked to explain their full significance,
are willing frankly to answer that they do not know. The research
which enables us to add to the sum of complete knowledge stands first;
but second only stands the research which, while enabling us clearly
to pose the problem, also requires us to say that with our present
knowledge we can offer no complete solution.
Let me illustrate what I mean by an instance or two taken from one of
the most fascinating branches of world-history, the history of the
higher forms of life, of mammalian life, on this globe.
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